5G2 DIFFERENCES IN SIGNS. 



missionaries found themselves able to discard no less than 

 thirteen letters, namely, &, c, d, /, g, ,/, I, q, s, v, x, y, and z* 

 Schaaff hausen observes that the labials are especially difficult 

 to prognathous races. 



Shortland asserts that whistling was unknown in New 

 Zealand. f Even the symbols by which the feelings are ex- 

 pressed are very different in different races. Kissing appears 

 to us the natural expression of affection. " 'Tis certain," says 

 Steele, "nature was its author, and it began with the first 

 courtship." On the contrary, it was entirely unknown to the 

 Tahitians, the New Zealanders,J the Papouans, and the 

 aborigines of Australia, nor was it in use among the Somals,|| 

 or the Esquimaux.^ The Hill Tribes of Chittagong do not 

 say " Kiss me," but " Smell me."** The Malays,ft Eijians,^ 

 Tongans, and many other Polynesians, always sit down when 

 speaking to a superior ; the inhabitants of Mallicollo testify 

 "admiration by hissing like a goose," the sound being per- 

 haps like our " hush," a call for silence, and hence a mark of 

 interest ; the mode of showing respect among the Todas of the 

 Neilgherry hills is by raising the open right hand to the face, 

 resting the thumb on the bridge of the nose; at Vatavulu|||| it 

 is respectful to turn one's back on a superior, especially in 

 addressing him. The same custom occurs in Congo ;1F1T Denham 

 found it in Central Africa ;*** and Speke among the Wahuma 



* Brown, New Zealand and its ft Marsden, Memoirs of a Ma- 

 Aborigines, p. 100. layan Family, p. 37. 



t Traditions of the New Zea- JJ Williams, Figi and the Figi- 



landers, p. 134. ans, vol. i. p. 38. 



I D'Urville, vol. ii. p. 501; Cook's Second Voyage, vol. ii. 



t Voyage of the Novara, vol. iii. p. 36. 



p. 106. HI) Figi and the Figians, vol. i. 



Freycinet, vol. ii. p. 56. p. 154. 



|| Burton's First Footsteps in 1F1F Astley's Voyage and Travels, 



Africa, p. 123. vol. iii. p. 72. 



IT Lyon's Journal, p. 353. *** Travels and Discoveries in 



** Lewin. Hill Tribes -of Chit- Africa, vol. ii. p. 27, vol. iii. p. 15. 

 tagong, p. 46. 



